Flexible door



July 15, 1958 o. J. LAUBENTHAL 2,843,201

FLEXIBLE- DOOR Filed Nov. 28, 1955 FIGS 5J- F',G 4 FIG United States Patent O FLEXIBLE DOOR Omer J. Laubenthal, Elyria, Ohio Application November 28, 1955, Serial No. 549,367 1 Claim. (Cl. 160-354) This invention relates to adoor and particularly to doors constructed of resilient strips whereby an object may flex the strips to pass through the door.

In the past, rigid folding doors have been used on milk trucks and other vehicles as Well as in factories and windows, with the door hinged to the door frame. In order to go through the door it was necessary to pivot the door on a hinge. Attempts have been made to provide these hinged doors with a exible material or buffer which would take the jar when an object hit the door to open it. A spring hinge or some similar mechanism was necessary to again close these doors.

I have invented a door which may be used on milk trucks, a factory door, on automobile windows or any other suitable place where it is desired to have the door normally closed except when an object is passing therethrough. In many instances it is only desirable to have as much of the door open as necessary for the particular object, to prevent wind and excessive air moving through the door. This is particularly helpful when the area on one side of the door is at a different temperature than the area on the other side of the door.

It has been found that milk men generally leave the milk truck door wide open in the winter time instead of opening and closing it every time they pass through the door. When milk men do this, cold wind blowing into the trucks is very apt to freeze the bottles of milk or conversely in summer, hot wind is apt to overheat the bottles of milk. The present door arrangement overcomes this problem and similar problems in other fields of usage.

The present invention is directed to a door having a stiff non-resilient support member supporting a plurality of resilient strips in edge to edge relationship whereby an object flexes only those strips which it engages. In this way a small object ilexes fewer of the strips than a large object to pass through the door, thus providing maximum door closed protection against the passage of air or wind.

Therefore, it is one of the objects of the invention to provide a door that automatically compensates for various sizes of objects while providingv a pass-through opening only suthciently large for that particular object.

Another object of this invention is to provide a door arrangement with a door frame and a pair of rigid members mounted in the frame in spaced parallel arrangement wherein these members support a plurality of resilient strips with the strips on one member extending in end to end relationship with the other member.

A further object of the invention is to provide a door arrangement which has a plurality of resilient strips secured to a relatively rigid strip supporting member and positioned in edge to edge contact relationship with the rigid member pivotally mounted.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of this invention may be had by referring to the following description and claim taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

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Fig. 1 illustrates a plan view, partly in section, of a door arrangement;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view along line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view along line 3--3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view of a door having modied strips;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view along line 5 5 of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is a sectional view along line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

This door arrangement includes door frame 10 which may be secured to the building wall or to the wall of the truck to provide an opening. Pivotally mounted on opposite sides of the door frame are relatively stitf nonresilient support members 11 and 12. These members 11 and 12 are positioned and spaced in parallel relationship as illustrated. However, they may be positioned other than parallel. Secured to each of the members 11 and 12 are a plurality of resilient strips as illustrated.

The member 11 carries strips such as, resilient strips 13, 14, and 15, which are generally transverse thereto and in an edge-to-edge position of contact relationship and are normally positioned in end to end relationship with the strips on the support member 12. The term edge to edge contact means that the adjacent strips have their edges in contact or very nearly in contact. The support member 11 is pivotally mounted on the door frame 10 at pivot points 16 and 17 so that the support member and strips carried thereby may be moved or may be pivoted out of the way. When desired the support member 11 and its associated strips are normally held in closed position as illustrated by a spring latch 18 mounted between the door frame and the support member 11. The support member 12 may be :similarly pivotally mounted on the frame.

Strips 13, 14, and 15 may be constructed of transparent plastic or someother similar material which is resilient in nature and has inherent capabilities tending to return the strips to the edge to edge contact normal position when they are bodily bent or flexed therefrom.

In Fig. 3 I illustrate strip 14 in its normal position in solid lines, and in its open position out of edge to edge contact with strips 13 and 15 by dash dot line 19. Strip 14 moves into the position illustrated by 19, when an object passes through the doors which engages only strip 14. It is understood larger objects would engage more strips and flex them. As soon as an object passes through the door the inherent properties of strips return them to a closed position.

In Fig. 4 a modification of the invention is illustrated showing a various design of strip. In the illustration each strip, such as strip 21, is provided with overlap edges 22 and 23. As in Fig. 6, these overlap edges align themselves with overlap edges on the next adjacent strips when in normal position in the edge to edge relationship. It is understood that other designs of edges may be used if desired. The overlap edgeidea may be extended to the end edges of strips which engage the end edges of strips positioned in end to end relationship therewith.

In these Figs. 4, 5, and 6 I have also illustrated each strip as having a reinforcement 24. The reinforcement may be in the form of a at spring, Vas illustrated and which is molded entirely within the strip, or, it may be pieces of nylon or any other suitable material. The operation of the unit illustrated in modified Figs. 4, 5, and 6 is generally the same as that in the preferred embodiment.

In the illustration, double sets of strips have been used with the strips on one support member being normally positioned in end to end relationship with the strips on another support member. It is understood that a single support member and its associated strips extending clear across the opening and terminating in contact or close to contact relation with a stationary part of a wall 'or a part of the opening may be used.

Therefore, although this invention has been described in its preferred forrn with a certain degree of particun larity it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of thel construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

What is claimed is:

A door comprising, a plurality of exible and resilient strips normally disposed side by side in a common plane and in substantially edge to edge relationship to close a doorway, each of said strips having a supporting end and a free end, a rigid member rigidly secured to the supporting ends of said strips and normally holding the strips in said plane, each of said strips being relatively inexible in the direction of said plane and relatively iiexible in each of the opposite directions transverse to said plane independently of at least one of its next ad jacent strips whereby its free end may be independently moved from said plane through contact of an object therewith to permit the object to pass through the doorway, each of said strips being resilient to return the free end thereof to said plane after the object has passed through the doorway to close the doorway, means for pivotally mounting said rigid member for pivotal movement between open door and closed door positions, and releasable latch means for holding said member in one of said positions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 205,812 Simpson July 9, 1879 563,738 Bunn July 14, 1896 1,634,312 Zecchino July 5, 1927 1,804,326 Dokken May 5, 1931 2,122,532 Mirns July 5, 1938 2,298,783 Burnett Oct. 13, 1942 2,621,725 Shacikoski Dec. 16, 1952 2,720,920 Eckel Oct. 18, 1955 2,758,646 Johnson Aug. 14, 1956 2,760,567 Eckel et al Aug, 28, 1956 2,778,417 Novitz Jan. 22, 1957 

